SWEET SHACKS

As the holiday season approaches, I understand that one of the things on Martha Stewart's to-do list is installing plumbing in her gingerbread house. That would be just like her. But, frankly, I would expect running water to be included in her gingerbread house kit, which also contains plans for a Palais des Poulets based on Martha's chicken coop and retails at $68. At that price, I'd have to look into time-shares.

Fortunately, when it comes to gingerbread houses, cheaper real estate is available. There are a number of kits on the market selling for as little at $10. One of the best is offered by HomeSweetHome who donates a percentage of sales to Habitat for Humanity. It's available online at www.bethsfinedesserts.com. And, of course, you can bypass the kit and make your own gingerbread house from scratch. It's really not difficult. But whichever route you take, Martha is certainly right when she says, "The spirit of the holidays resides in a gingerbread house."

The residents of Malden, Mo., would agree. Malden is the home of Missouri's largest gingerbread house, a triumph of culinary architecture constructed with 500 pounds of icing and candy and illuminated by more than 4,000 lights. The roof is made of graham crackers -- six cases of them -- while the chimney was fashioned using seven cases of fudge sticks.

In addition, the house required a case of lemon drops, two cases of jellybeans, two cases of butterscotch buttons, four cases of Kiddie Pops, two cases of mints, one case of cinnamon disks, a case of mixed candies, and a case of rock candy. How I would loved to have been the foreman on that job!

The Malden gingerbread house is a 10-year-old tradition, but gingerbread and gingerbread houses go back much further than that. In fact, the Joy of Cooking claims that gingerbread itself "can be traced back further than any other baked good with the exception of bread." Some say it was invented around 2800 BC by a Greek from the Isle of Rhodes. Brought back by soldiers returning from the Crusades in the 11th century it became popular throughout Europe. Over the next couple of hundred years gingerbread was perfected and recipes for it appear as early as the 14th century. There's even a reference to it in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. During the Middle Ages, ladies presented colorfully painted gingerbread cakes to their favorite knights. It was Queen Elizabeth I, however, who is given credit for inventing the gingerbread man when she gave guests their own likenesses in gingerbread.

But gingerbread houses, according to Teresa Layman and Barbara Morgenroth, authors of a book on things to make out of gingerbread, go back only to the 18th century. They credit the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, popularized by the brothers Grimm, with getting people to start thinking about houses made of gingerbread, but historian William Woys Weaver observes that the 1893 opera version of the fairytale, complete with a life-size gingerbread house, may have been the event that triggered the gingerbread building boom.

During the Victorian era gingerbread houses became more opulent and caught on in this country. Today all manner of structures, ranging from log cabins to farmhouses to ski chalets, are constructed for the holiday season. Down in Tampa, Florida, for example, there's even a contest for the best Cracker Shack made out of gingerbread. In some small towns in Germany families still create gingerbread models of their homes which are then brought to a central location to recreate the entire village. Similarly, last year Hillary Rodham Clinton had constructed a gingerbread complex consisting of the White House, Mount Vernon, the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument, the latter complete with a blinking red light on top.

Though gingerbread houses can be made any time of year (Martha, for instance, offers a Halloween haunted gingerbread mansion kit for only $32), they are most closely associated with Christmas. Perhaps this is because during the Middle Ages, only members of gingerbread guilds were allowed to make gingerbread -- except at Christmas. Moreover, centuries ago only the very rich could routinely afford sugar and spices and everyone else would have to confine their use to special occasions.

So why not honor the tradition by constructing a gingerbread house of your own this holiday season? The size of the house really doesn't matter. Just like with real houses, it's the spirit that goes into it that makes the difference. Nor do you need a complicated plan. A simple A-frame will work fine. And even a convenient prefabricated kit still allows plenty of opportunity for creativity. Simply stroll down the candy, cookie, and cereal aisles of the grocery store for inspiration. (That's where it first occurred to me that frosted mini-wheats make the best roof shingles. They even come complete with snow!) The following basic recipes will get you started and help you discover why the great chef Antonin Careme once remarked that pastry, or in this case gingerbread, is the most important branch of architecture.

Structural Gingerbread Dough

Because baking soda produces a somewhat softer result than you'll want for construction projects, structural gingerbread dough usually contains baking powder instead or, as in this recipe, adapted from Teresa Layman's book, "Gingerbread For All Seasons," neither baking soda nor powder.

Ingredients:

6 3/4 cups flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups light or dark corn syrup

1 1/4 cups light or dark brown sugar

1 cup margarine

Directions:

Stir together dry ingredients. Combine remaining ingredients, stirring constantly over medium heat until margarine is melted. Combine liquid and flour mixtures and mix with hands or heavy-duty mixer until it becomes stiff dough. Chill and roll out to 1/8-inch thickness and cut into desired patterns. Bake, preferably on parchment paper, at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Royal Icing

You can use canned frosting or even marshmallow fluff as the mortar for your gingerbread house, but royal icing, though not as tasty, is preferable because it dries fast and hard. It cannot be refrigerated, so you'll need to use it immediately. To keep it from drying out while in use, simply cover the bowl with a damp cloth. This recipe is adapted from Evelyn Fryatt's book, "Festive Gingerbreads."

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:

Beat all ingredients together at medium speed for 7-10 minutes.

Listen to A Harte Appetite every Saturday at 11:59 a.m. following "Whad'ya Know" on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.